NEW YORK — Home Depot is on a hiring spree.
The nation’s largest home improvement chain, based in Atlanta, said Wednesday it is hiring more than 80,000 workers nationwide for its busy spring season, the same level as in recent years. The retailer estimates that more than half of the temporary workers stay on for permanent employment.
In the Chicago area, Home Depot expects to hire about 3,000 workers across its 66 stores. The local hiring forecast is in line with what the company has done the past few years.
The part-time and full-time jobs include sales, operations and cashier positions across all departments in stores as well as jobs at its distribution centers.
The hiring comes as Home Depot has been benefiting from shoppers’ increasing shift to renovate their homes in a housing market that has been solid
Home Depot said in December that it expects its annual revenue to surpass $100 billion in 2018 and backed its earnings and revenue outlook for the latest fiscal year that ended last month. It also said that sales at stores opened at least a year, a key measure of a retailer’s financial health, would rise 4.9 percent for the fiscal year that just ended.
Home Depot Inc. is expected to report its fiscal fourth-quarter and annual results on Feb. 23.
Its shares fell 47 cents to $124.80 in morning trading Wednesday and are up more than 16 percent over the past 12 months.
BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer
